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Amazon is happy to announce that Alexa, the brain that powers Amazon Echo, is coming to India, along with three Alexa-enabled devices: Amazon Echo, Echo Plus, and Echo Dot. Customers who want to help further the development of Alexa and the Echo family of devices may request an invitation to purchase devices beginning today.

This opens up new opportunities for developers in India and worldwide. Starting today, you can build for voice with Alexa and reach customers in India with the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK), our collection of self-service APIs, tools, documentation, and code samples. Hardware manufacturers can start developing Alexa-enabled products for Indian customers with the Alexa Voice Service (AVS) by participating in a developer preview.

More than 10,000 skills will be available when the service launches to customers in India this month. Popular Indian brands are already creating voice experiences using the Alexa Skills Kit, including Saavn, ESPNcricinfo, Ola, Times of India, NDTV, AajTak, Tarla Dalal, Zomato, Freshmenu, Goibibo, Housejoy, SYSKA, Silvan, Urban Clap, and Byju's. Developers around the world can extend their experiences to more customers in this new marketplace and earn perks along the way. Publish a skill for India in the month of October, and apply to receive a limited-edition Alexa dev shirt.

How to Build an Alexa Skill

It’s easy to start building for voice with Alexa. Explore our simple tutorials or watch our on-demand webinars to learn how to build a skill quickly. If you want to build a multi-language Alexa skill, read our technical documentation to learn how to create a skill in all language models (English (US), English (India), English (UK), and German. If you’re already an Alexa developer, you can enhance your existing skill by extending support for the new language model for India. See our technical blog post to learn how to update your skill for India.

No device? No problem. Use the Service Simulator to programmatically test skill invocations and simulate a user using your skills.

How to Integrate Alexa into Your Product

The Alexa Voice Service (AVS) enables developers to integrate Alexa directly into their products, bringing the convenience of voice control to any connected device. Device makers can start building with AVS today, and can build an Alexa-enabled prototype for Raspberry Pi in an hour with the AVS Quick Start Guide. Sign up for the developer preview to be notified when AVS will be widely available for customers in India, and learn how to build new products or update your existing products to reach new customers in India here.

Get Technical Help from the Alexa Team

Join us at an Alexa developer event or at our first webinar in the coming weeks. These sessions are an opportunity for you to get your questions answered by an Alexa evangelist or a solutions architect.